The United States of America gets it most of the time. As a federal state, it has developed a highly organized and systematic administrative federalism that permits it to function like a smooth, well-oiled machine. I have always said that Nigeria could learn and incorporate some of the finest attributes of the US system, while of course learning from its equally deep flaws, and thus not re-invent the wheel either way.
The president flew out to South Africa just as the streets became hot last week and not before he dropped a bombshell. In a church service at Abuja, Dr. Jonathan had declared that his cabinet, Nigeria’s National Assembly, the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Nigerian Intelligence Services have all been infiltrated by the terrorist group, the Boko Haram.
I am a Christmas child. No, I was not born on Christmas day – but an exact week to Christmas – on the 18th of December – that last week of active shopping and frenzied last minutes preparation for Christmas celebrants. So imagine Nigeria on the 18th of December, 1966. Two coups had taken place earlier that year – one in January and the other on July.
Since 1985 when the former military dictator, Ibrahim Babangida adopted the IMF economic model in Nigeria, the issue of “fuel subsidies” has become recurrent in Nigeria’s annual economic grammar. In 1989 and 1990, Nigerian students led a nation-wide protest against the anti-SAP policies of the military government, one of whose cardinal thrusts was the partial removal of oil subsidies.
Last week from Abeokuta, former president Olusegun Obasanjo, expressed fears about imminent mass revolt as a consequence of the criminally high rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria. Obasanjo is afraid that this revolt might lead to Nigeria’s equivalent of the Arab Spring. The former president has good reasons to fear, and indeed, he should be very, very afraid.
Finally, the Senate took up the gauntlet last week and threatened to call a vote of no confidence on the president for what they have generally perceived as his lack of serious engagement with the national security situation. Specifically, the senators were up in arms with the administration’s handling of the Boko Haram terrorist killings, and the heightened general insecurity of life in Nigeria.
